Glacier Melt Reveals Remains of British Climber Missing Since 1971

According to local authorities, the climber's remains found in the Swiss Alps last year have been recognized as a British mountaineer who vanished 52 years prior.

It is the most recent in a string of finds of long-missing climbers' bones that have been made as a result of the melting and retreating of the Alps' glaciers due to climate change.

The climber was reported missing in July 1971, but authorities in the canton of Valais, southwest Switzerland, stated search teams at the time found nothing.

Afterward, on August 22, 2022, two mountaineers discovered human bones on the Chessjengletscher glacier close to Saas-Fee, an Alpine community in the Saas Valley.

As experts went through the case files of vanished climbers, it took a year to identify the person.

Finally, a relative was located with the aid of Interpol Manchester and the Scottish police, and a DNA sample allowed them to positively identify the British mountaineer, according to authorities. On August 30, the climber's identity was formally confirmed.

Recent Missing Persons Discovered As Glaciers Melt

There have been more bones found of hikers, skiers, and other alpinists who went missing decades ago as glaciers melt and retreat, which many scientists attribute to global warming.

(Photo: by JEFF PACHOUD/AFP via Getty Images)
A picture taken on February 5, 2016, shows France's Estelle Balet competing to win the wild face of "l'Aiguille Pourrie" during a stage of the Swatch Freeride World Tour in Chamonix. An avalanche in the Swiss Alps on April 19, 2016, swept away two-time world extreme snowboard champion Estelle Balet to her death, police said.

The remains of a German climber who vanished in 1986 were found on another Swiss glacier in the latter part of July. Police did not release the climber's identity, but they did release a picture of what appeared to be the missing man's hiking boot and equipment jutting out of the snow.

A few weeks later, a mountaineering guide discovered the bones of a guy who was thought to have perished in an accident on a glacier in the Austrian Alps 22 years prior.

On a glacier on Mont Blanc's southern face, in August 2017, Italian mountain rescue teams discovered the bones of hikers who had died in the 1980s or 1990s.

The bodies of a frozen couple who went missing in 1942 were discovered the month before that on a receding glacier in Switzerland.

According to The Guardian, the names of two Japanese climbers who vanished on the Matterhorn in 1970 had their bodies identified in 2015 after DNA testing.

The Dangers of the Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps are a beautiful and challenging mountain range, but they also pose a number of dangers to climbers. Falls are the leading cause of death among climbers in the Swiss Alps. They can happen on any type of terrain, but they are more common on steep slopes and icy surfaces.

Additionally, loose rocks and ice can fall from above, striking climbers and causing serious injuries or death. While avalanches are a major risk in the Swiss Alps as well, especially during the winter and spring months. They can be triggered by a number of factors, including human activity, snowfall, and wind.